engine wont turn over

How old is the battery?

I'm not sure, it might be a few years old. Would this not allow the engine to turn over? Also, would jump starting the car get it started?

Cold weather and old battery are deadly combinations. If your battery is more than four years old, I think it is suspect. If it is younger, I'd charge it up and look for other suspects,

A totally shot battery will prevent it from turning over, turn on the dome light and try to crank the engine, does the light go out?

Jump starting will normally work even with a completely flat battery but only if you get a real good connection with heavy jumper cables.

Frozen starter solenoid ?

Graham

If the light *doesn't* go out - there's a fault in the starter circuit.

If the light *does* go out- the battery is indeed flat.

Very true and a cable with copper cores too - not those nasty cheap aluminium ones they used to sell. You need vicious 'croc clips' on the ends as well btw to make decent contact since the current will be serious..

Graham

Well, it's not the battery because all the electric things work. If it is a frozen starter solenoid will replacing the starter fix this?

Well, it's not the battery because all the electric things work. If it is a frozen starter solenoid will replacing the starter fix this?

Of course with a bad solenoid your starter won't turn. But starting requires a lot of current. Make aure your battery is good for that before you replace the starter. You need a a working, charged up battery to baseline the starter solenoid anyway.

Yes, though it might be enough to simply thaw it out, or disassemble it if you can and clean/relube it. Check for voltage at the starter first, and at the solenoid wire when the key is turned. No sense replacing the starter if the fault is elsewhere.

I've hear horror stories trying to remove the 9k starter. It takes hours and you have to use a special curved wrench. But if you have an impact wrench, removing the starter is a piece of cake. The positive battery cable is to be disconnected first of course. There are only two bolts holding the starter up. The top one you do it on the driver side. The 18 mm bolt head take 2 seconds to remove. The bottom one you slip the impact gun between the false bulkhead and the engine from the passenger side. It is a 17 mm nut and takes another 2 seconds to remove. But this works only if you have either lpt or fpt. The intake manifold is smaller for these models. Your 98 fits that description. The n/a engine has a larger intake you cannot slip an impact gun to loosen the bottom nut.

But if you do not have an air compressor and impact gun. Hope it is the battery. Don't try to remove the starter.

The first place to look is the fusebox. There may be a relay fuse for the starter. Even if fuses look ok, the pins may be oxidized. wriggling a fuse sometimes help.

It's better to disconnect the neg. cable from the battery first.

Actually, do yourself a big favor and remove the *negative* battery cable first. That way if you swing the wrench around and hit something grounded the sparks won't be flying and you won't weld your wrench to the fender.

Safety first!

If the battery is dead, this is not a problem:-)

However, I did remove the postive cable first - just once!

It resulted in a light show of sparks - never again.

Obviously you have not had a SAAB 9k of the vintage '94 to '98, have not used an air driven impact wrench to remove a starter on a 9k of that vintage, very likely both. If you have, you would have known it is not possible to stick an impact wrench between the battery and the transmission to take the bolt off with thw 18mm bolt head. There is not enough space.

The battery and tray would have been removed already for obvious reason. You could remove the negative lead from the batter keep the positive cable connected with the tray gone but I don't know why anyone would want to do that.

Th point I was trying to make was the bottom 17mm nut on the starter on a 9k is not easy to access by other means. But with an air impact wrench it is very easy. The starter top bolt is of course straightforward.

Well, sort of. Even "dead" batteries often have 8-10 Volts stored potential still. While that is not enough to turn over the car it is plenty to make some beautiful sparks when presented with a nice low resistance current path.

What does any of that have to do with the need to remove the negative battery terminal before removing the positive one?

What does stating the obvious and had already been done has anything to do with the point I was making?